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21L.707

Problems in Cultural Interpretation

3-0-9 units. HASS-H · Undergraduate

Studies the relation between imaginative texts and the culture surrounding them. Emphasizes ways in which imaginative works absorb, reflect, and conflict with reigning attitudes and world views. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Previously taught topics include Women Reading/Women Writing; Poetry, Passion, and the Self; and Race, Religion and Identity in Early Modern America. Approved for credit in Women's and Gender Studies when content meets the requirements for subjects in that program. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor if content differs. Limited to 12.

Spring 2017 · Reading Cookbooks: from The Forme of Cury to The Smitten Kitchen

Topics

  • Introduction: Reading recipes: Lasagne from the 14th to the 21st C
  • Early English Cookery Manuscripts
  • The Forme of Cury
  • The Tudor Age: New World Ingredients & The Banquetting Table
  • Tudor Age cont.
  • The 17th Century: French or English? Catholic or Protestant?
  • Robert May
  • 18th Century: The Middle Class Domestic Cookery Book
  • Hannah Glasse
  • The Victorian Age: Separate Spheres
  • The Victorian Age cont.
  • Isabella Beeton
  • The 19th Century: Feeding the Poor
  • Feeding the Poor cont.
  • The Empire Abroad
  • “Wyvern” cont.
  • Post World War One
  • Post World War Two: The Mediterranean Diet
  • Elizabeth David
  • Return of the Native
  • England Today: The Domestic Goddess & The King of Offal
  • A Transatlantic Postscript: Contemporary American Cookbooks, Blogs, and Food Network
  • Conclustion

Readings

Fall 2005 · Writing Early American Lives: Gender, Race, Nation, Faith

Topics

  • Introductions and Contexts
  • Harriot
  • Natives and Newcomers in the Northeast
  • Women, Captivity, Transculturation
  • Field Trip (Boston)
  • Women, Captivity, Transculturation (cont.)
  • Field Trip (Concord)
  • Presenting Work-in-progress
  • Native Speakers and English Eloquence
  • Men’s Work, Education and Bondage
  • Men’s Work, Education and Bondage (cont.)

Readings

  • Hariot, Thomas. A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia . New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1972.
    Listed reading
  • Rowlandson, Mary. Sovereignty and Goodness of God . Boston, MA: Bedford Books, 1997. ISBN: 0312111517.
    Listed reading
  • Seaver, James E., and Mary Jemison. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison . Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. ISBN: 0806123818.
    Listed reading
  • Apess, William. A Son of the Forest and Other Writings . Edited by Barry O’Connell. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997. ISBN: 1558491074.
    Listed reading
  • Douglass, Frederick, and Harriet A. Jacobs. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl . New York, NY: Modern Library, 2000. ISBN: 0679783288.
    Listed reading
  • Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano . New York, NY: Modern Library, 2004. ISBN: 0375761152.
    Listed reading
  • Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0300098588.
    Listed reading
  • Morton, Thomas. New English Canaan , Book I, chapters III, XVIII, XX; Book II, chapters I, XIV, XV, XVI. In Jack Dempsey ed., New English Canaan: Text, Notes, Biography and Criticism . Scituate, MA: Digital Scanning, 2000, 2002. pp. 19-20, 45-46, 48-55, 134-148. ISBN: 1582181500.
    Listed reading
  • Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation , Book I, selections from chapters I, IV, VII, IX, X, XII; Book II, selections from chapters XI, XIX, XXIII, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV. In The Norton Anthology of American Literature . New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1980. pp. 49-80. ISBN: 0393953777.
    Listed reading
  • Wheatley, Phillis. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) . Digital edition at Renascence Editions ( PDF ). ↗
    Listed reading
  • Wheatley, Phillis. Unpublished letters, in Vincent Carretta ed., Complete Writings . New York, NY: Penguin, 2001. pp. 139-162. ISBN: 014042430X.
    Listed reading
  • Odell, Margaretta Matilda. Memoir, in Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave (1834) . Digital edition at Documenting the American South . ↗
    Listed reading
  • Occom, Samson. “A Short Narrative of My Life” (1768). In Colin Calloway ed., The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America . Boston, MA: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. pp. 54-61. ISBN: 0312083505.
    Listed reading
  • Quinney, Josiah. “July 4 Speech” (1854). In Colin Calloway ed., The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America . Boston, MA: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. pp. 40-41. ISBN: 0312083505.
    Listed reading
  • Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin New Haven . CT: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0300098588.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 26-27 · TOPICS: Men’s Work, Education and Bondage (cont.) · READINGS: Douglass, Frederick, and Harriet A. Jacobs. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl . New York, NY: Modern Library, 2000. ISBN: 0679783288.
    Reading assignment
Spring 2005 · Arthurian Literature and Celtic Colonization

Topics

  • English Imperialism in the Twelfth-Century
  • Imperialist History I: Hebrew Models of Historical Narrative
  • Imperialist History II: Roman Models of Secular History
  • Imperialist History III: Christian Models of Salvation History
  • The Return of the Repressed: Multiplicity and the Marvelous
  • Student Presentations
  • Reconquering the Past: The Motifs of Rivalry and Revenge
  • The Cause of Liberty and the Roots of British Disunity
  • The Hero of the Nation: Rescue and Redemption
  • Private Passions: The Political as Personal
  • Unnatural History: Linearity, Lineage, and Land Management
  • Land of Enchantment: Monsters, Marvels, and Mastery
  • Liberty and License: The Situational Ethics of Erotic Entanglements
  • Celtic Adventures and the Opportunities for Individual Self-Realization
  • Misadventures of the Noble Savage
  • The Dissolution of Britain: The Great Revolt of 1173-74
  • Gender Trouble: Parody and the Play of Perspectives in the Gawain Romances
  • Contemptus Mundi : Gothic Horror and the Grotesque
  • Lateran IV, Lay Spirituality, and Affective Piety
  • The World as Text
  • Cyclical Developments
  • Knight Errantry
  • Apocalyptic Visions and Cistercian Revisionism
  • The End of an Era

Readings

  • Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0192829122.
    Listed reading
  • Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain . Translated by Lewis Thrope. New York, NY; London, UK: Penguin Books, 1966.
    Listed reading
  • Gerald of Wales. The History and Topography of Ireland . Translated by John J. O’Meara. New York, NY; London, UK: Penguin Books, 1951, 1982. ISBN: 0140444238.
    Listed reading
  • ———. The Journey through Wales, The Description of Wales . Translated by Lewis Thrope. New York, NY; London, UK: Penguin Books, 1978. ISBN: 0140443398.
    Listed reading
  • Chrétien de Troyes. The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot) . Translated by Burton Raffel. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0300071213.
    Listed reading
  • ———. The Story of the Grail (Perceval) . Translated by Burton Raffel. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0300075863.
    Listed reading
  • Marie de France. The Lais of Marie de France . Translated by Joan Ferrante, and Robert Hanning. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1995. ISBN: 080102031X. [LMF]
    Listed reading
  • Arthur, Ross G., tr. Three Arthurian Romances: Poems from Medieval France . London, UK: Everyman, 1996. ISBN: 0460875779.
    Listed reading
  • Lacy, Norris J., ed. The Lancelot-Grail Reader . New York, NY: Garland, 2000. ISBN: 0815334192. [L-GR]
    Listed reading
  • Evans, Sebastian, tr. Perlesvaux (The High History of the Holy Graal) . 1898. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Gillingham, John. “The Beginnings of English Imperialism.” In The English in the Twelfth Century: Imperialism, National Identity and Political Values . Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2000, pp. 3-18. ISBN: 0851157327.
    Listed reading
  • Davies, R. R. “The High Kingship of the British Isles.” In The First English Empire: Power and Identities in the British Isles 1093-1343 . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 4-30. ISBN: 0199257248.
    Listed reading
  • Carpenter, David. “Britain Remodelled: King Stephen, 1135-54, King David, 1124-53, and the Welsh Rulers,” and “King Henry II, Britain and Ireland, 1154-89.” In The Struggle for Mastery: The Penguin History of Britain 1066-1284 . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003, 2005, pp. 163-244. ISBN: 0140148248.
    Listed reading
  • James, Simon. The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention? London, UK: British Museum Press, 1999, pp. 15-66. ISBN: 0714121657.
    Listed reading
  • Gildas. The Ruin of Britain and Other Works . Translated by Michael Winterbottom. London, UK; Chichester, UK: Phillimore, 1978, pp. 13-79. ISBN: 0847660796.
    Listed reading
  • Hanning, Robert. “Gildas’ De excidio et conquestu Britanniae : In Britain’s Fall They Sinnèd All.” In The Vision of History in Early Britain: From Gildas to Geoffrey of Monmouth . New York, NY; London, UK: Columbia University Press, 1966, pp. 44-62.
    Listed reading
  • Nennius. British History and the Welsh Annals . Translated by John Morris. London, UK; Chichester, UK: Phillimore, 1980, pp. 9-49. ISBN: 0850332974.
    Listed reading
  • Higham, N. J. “Contested Histories: Anglo-Saxons and Britons c. 730-830.” In King Arthur: Myth-Making and History . London, UK; New York, NY: Routledge, 2002, pp. 98-169. ISBN: 0415213053.
    Listed reading
  • White, Hayden. “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality.” In The Content and the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation . Baltimore, MD; London, UK: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, pp. 1-25. ISBN: 0801841151.
    Listed reading
  • Ingledew, Francis. “The Book of Troy and the Genealogical Construction of History.” Speculum 69, no. 3 (1994): 665-704.
    Listed reading
  • Warren, Michelle. “ Historia in marchia : Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Colonial Itinerary.” In History on the Edge: Excalibur and the Borders of Britain, 1100-1300 . Minneapolis, MN; London, UK: University of Minnesota Press, 2000, pp. 25-59. ISBN: 0816634912.
    Listed reading
  • Pearsall, Derek. “The Romancing of the Arthurian Story: Chrétien de Troyes.” In Arthurian Romance: A Short Introduction . Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2003, pp. 20-39. ISBN: 0631233202.
    Listed reading
  • Cain, James. “Unnatural History: Gender and Genealogy in Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica .” Essays in Medieval Studies 19 (2002): 29-43.
    Listed reading
  • Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, ed. “Hybrids, Monsters, Borderlands: The Bodies of Gerald of Wales.” In The Postcolonial Middle Ages . New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2000, pp. 85-104. ISBN: 0312219296.
    Listed reading
  • Barber, Richard. “The Eucharist and the Grail.” In The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, pp. 135-147. ISBN: 0674013905.
    Listed reading
  • James. The Atlantic Celts .
    Listed reading
  • Gildas. The Ruin of Britain .
    Listed reading
  • Hanning. “Gildas’ De excidio et conquestu Britanniae : In Britain’s Fall They Sinnèd All.”
    Listed reading
  • Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People . Book I.i-xxii.
    Listed reading
  • Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People . Book I.xxiii-xxxiv.
    Listed reading
  • Nennius. British History .
    Listed reading
  • ———. The Welsh Annals .
    Listed reading
  • Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Kings of Britain . Parts I-VI.
    Listed reading
  • Ingledew. “ The Book of Troy and the Genealogical Construction of History.”
    Listed reading
  • Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Kings of Britain . Parts VII-VIII.
    Listed reading
  • Warren. “ Historia in marchia : Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Colonial Itinerary.”
    Listed reading
  • Chrétien de Troyes. The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot) . vv.1-3905.
    Listed reading
  • Chrétien de Troyes. The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot) . vv.3906-7121.
    Listed reading
  • Gerald of Wales. The History and Topography of Ireland .
    Listed reading
  • Gerald of Wales. The Journey through Wales .
    Listed reading
  • ———. The Description of Wales .
    Listed reading
  • Marie de France. Prologue , Guigemar , Equitan , Le Frêne , Bisclavret , Lanval , The Two Lovers .
    Listed reading
  • Marie de France. Yonec , Laüstic , Milon , Chaitivel , Chevrefeuil , Eliduc .
    Listed reading
  • Chrétien de Troyes. The Story of the Grail (Perceval) . vv.1-6236.
    Listed reading
  • Chrétien de Troyes. The Story of the Grail (Perceval) . vv.6237-9235.
    Listed reading
  • The Knight with the Sword , The Perilous Graveyard .
    Listed reading
  • Contemptus Mundi : Gothic Horror and the Grotesque
    Listed reading
  • Perlesvaux . Branches I-VII.
    Listed reading
  • Perlesvaux . Branches VIII-XXI.
    Listed reading
  • Perlesvaux . Branches XXII-XXXV.
    Listed reading
  • Lancelot . Parts 1-3. [L-GR]
    Listed reading
  • Lancelot . Parts 4-6. [L-GR]
    Listed reading
  • The History of the Holy Grail .
    Listed reading
  • The Quest for the Holy Grail . [L-GR]
    Listed reading
  • The Death of Arthur . [L-GR]
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: Two subjects in Literature or permission of instructor U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Can be repeated for credit.

Sources